I have been playing around with the combat rule mechanism in the WW2 Western Desert rules I am using for my campaign games. These rules themselves are a slight variant on the Tank on Tank rules from Lock n Load publishing. The recent changes have the combat mechanism using opposing D6 dice rolls. After working through the percentage chances of hits I found they were exactly the same as the original rules. This was both interesting to do and made me laugh. I will keep the changes as I do quite like the opposing dice rolls.
The other change made is the introduction of chance cards using a very similar approach to those described in One Hour Wargames (chapter 22) which has about a third advantage cards, a third disadvantage cards, and a third no effect cards.
When making these changes I had started the next campaign turn and have decided to loop back and replay with the turn with the modified rules. I have yet to write up the rule amendments, which will be one of this weekend's activities.
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| The next campaign game on the tabletop |
A few expired down-lights converted to scatter terrain for my Necromunda games have now been painted. I must be getting close to the end of this terrain project and will soon be starting a mini skirmish campaign as I have sufficient figures painted to begin with three gangs. I just need to decide how best to run this campaign, and will most likely be using a snakes and ladders approach as I did with my Jacobite campaign.
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| Scatter terrain representing some sort of vent. |
For a while now I have been thinking about dabbling in the ancients period. The furthest back I go with my collections are: a One Hundred Years War Minifigs collection and 1066 paper soldier collection. The idea of collecting a couple of ancient period armies was cemented after reading Airfix's Guide to Ancient Wargaming.
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| recent reading |
My first efforts at wargaming in this period go back to when I was just a teenager, or maybe a fraction younger, and was with Airfix's Romans and Ancient Britons and a few Robin Hood figures thrown in for good measure. The book "Introduction to Battle Gaming" by Terry Wise was my inspiration at the time, and I used to look at the old black and white photographs time and time again.
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| Wonderful battles with Airfix figures. |
With this in mind I opted to go with soft plastic figures for nostalgia and to keep the costs down. Looking around at what was available online I opted to go with a few Roman and Carthaginian army boxes by HAT Industrie figures
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| HAT Roman Soldiers |
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| HAT Carthaginian Soldiers |
As for rules I have not given it a lot of thought, but I am very tempted to go with DBA as I do have a copy of the rules (version 1.1), and I am sure OHW rules will also get a go.
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| Rules in the cupboard waiting to be used |
That Airfix rule book brings back some memories. My first ancients dabble was Romans and Britons, an almost default situation because of the prevalence of Airfix, but as my wargaming eyes became further ‘opened’, an Indian army always took my fancy. In those days, that was something of a posh fancy and would really need some of those expensive and out of my reach .... metals!
ReplyDeleteI really like that you have gone for a 1/72 plastics project .... hurrah for HaT!
Looking forwards to whatever falls out of this.
I am looking forward to the HaT figures arriving in the mail so I can start the project. It will be interesting to work out the best approach for painting these figures.
DeletePeter, you are very active on many fronts. Oh, how I LOVE planning a new project! Looking forward to your ancients journey.
ReplyDeleteHi Jonathan, I agree the planing of a project brings much joy and anticipation.
DeleteHi Peter,
ReplyDeleteI can recommend "Basic Impetus v2.0" as well for easy Ancients rulesets. It comes with over 300 fixed army lists much like DBA, is well written and quick to play.
Thank you for the suggestion and it looks like I can buy and download a copy for the price of a coffee.
DeleteNice choice of armies for your Ancients project Peter. The art work on these boxes is great nostalgia. A long while back I bought HAT's Assyrian army box that was made to look like an old Airfix set - still only got a few figures painted...
ReplyDeleteThe Terry Wise book is a great favourite of mine too!
Thank you. I liked the look of the HaT figure poses that I saw online and the boxes seem to come with a nice balance of figure types.
DeleteThe Airfix figures and Ancient Wargaming book take me right back to my formative years as a wargamer. I can't say we did anything remotely historical, but we had fun and I'm still gaming nearly 50 years later!
ReplyDeleteLikewise for me, it was definitely having fun playing with toy soldiers when I started with Airfix. Terry Wise's book provided some semblance of historical order to my games.
DeleteThat reminds me of scouring every toy, model and even (strangely) a cycle shop in town buying up every pack of Airfix Romans, Robin Hood and Sheriff of Nottingham box, Roman fort and Nottingham castle I could lay my hand on. The figures for conversion to Greeks and the forts to build a city wall.
ReplyDeleteQuite a few stab wounds were caused by the needle spears and drawing pin shields.
One could never find enough Robin Hood boxes, and all those conversions you could do with them. The pins for spears were always a bit tricky.
DeleteAh the good old purple primer, mine has got my name and class number written in it since I was a schoolboy. You have given me the urge to read it again but I don't want to be distracted from my current project.
ReplyDeleteOh well, I'll have a quick look through it in bed.
Regards,
Paul.
It certainly is a very informative and enjoyable read.
DeleteAh, that Phil Barker book on ancients started my interest in the period. I still have that book somewhere. I have to laugh at the box art on those Carthaginian figures. Oh myyyy!
ReplyDeleteA most enjoyable guide and I agree the box art is quite different, very retro.
Deletehard to go wrong with the Punic Wars (having just finished such a battle with To the Strongest!)
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to starting the project.
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